Comcast, TWC are paying ‘nearly a dozen’ former FCC officials to push the FCC to approve the merger

The Comcast-TWC merger is about as popular among the American public as Islamic State militants, Justin Bieber’s drunken driving and the Ebola virus — that is to say, it’s really not that popular at all. Nonetheless, the merger stands a good chance of passing for two key reasons: Comcast doesn’t care what the public thinks and the government doesn’t care what the public thinks.

To understand just how much clout Comcast has with the government, consider a new report from Bloomberg BNA that shows Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Charter are now employing “nearly a dozen” former FCC officials whose job is now to help pressure their former employer into approving the proposed $45 billion merger between the two companies.

Included among the list of former officials are “the former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, a former policy director to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and an FCC senior counsel who led the agency’s 2011 approval of the Comcast-NBC Universal deal,” Bloomberg BNA reports.